After many years, I am back to brewing. This is my first batch and I forgot some things about bottling. Way back when, I bought some kegs (I hated cleaning all those bottles) but have yet to use them. Is there anything special I need to know about kegg'n? The finishing routine and plugg'n them up? If I could get specifics, that would help greatly!

Are you speaking of soda kegs, Sanke kegs, or Oak Kegs? If you are talking about soda kegs the same guideline applies for kegging as bottling. Make sure it's clean! I assume you are going to use a CO2 system since unless you drink the contents in one night (go for it 5 gallons isn't THAT much) the brew will go flat w/o constant pressure in the keg. Clarify the brew before it goes into the keg otherwise you'll get a load of turbidity in each glass since the pick-up tube is on the bottom. leave at least 3 inches of head space in the keg. (This is necessary for proper carbonating.) Chill the beer to drinking temp or below. The colder the brwew the more easily it accepts CO2. Carbonate by turning the regulator up 5 psi and gently rolling the keg back and forth on its side until no more gas enters the keg. You can tell by rolling the keg to a point where you know the gas inlet is under the brew and listen for bubbles. Do this until your brew is as fizzy as you like it. The ending pressure is dependent on the specific gravity of the beer and its temperature. I brew and keg IPA mainly, and my not-so-accurate gauge reads about 27 psi when the carbonation is the way I want it. It's best to leave the keg for several (8ish) hours to allow for headspace equilibrium. Athough, I've carbed and tapped many kegs in one evening. Some say that the agitation method disturbs the body of the brew. But I believe detecting that to be a bit beyond mortal palate sensitivity. If you're concerned about this there is a product available called "The Stone" (about 30 bucks)that diffuses the gas into the liquid kind of like an aquarium aerator. Or, you can wait 3 to 7 days with the pressure at about 25 psi to achieve carbonation. My advice is to spend 15-20 minutes rolling your keg. Check the carb level by releasing the pressure down to about 4 psi and taking a drink. Once you've gotten it where you want it preserve the level by leaving the regulator set to about 10 psi. You'll need to experiment to find the right setting. Too much and you end up tapping nothing but froth the next day. Too little and it goes flat. Tapping pressure is the lowest pressure that gets the beer out. Too much and again you end up with nothing but foam in your glass. It's best to release the pressure down to 2 or 3 psi and then slowly turn the pressure up until you get a smooth flow. Don't forget to turn the pressure back up to whatever the maintenance level is when your done drinking.

Hope this helps. There is a lot of experimentation to be done since each brew and CO2 system varies.

The method I employ for carbonating a keg is very simple. After the beer is finished I rack it into a clean and sanitized keg and seal. Then I attach the gas in from to my CO2 tank and crank the pressure up to 30psi. I leave the keg at 30psi for between 16-24 hours and then shut off the gas. I let the keg sit for an additional 2 days and it is then ready for consumption. I know this requires some additional patience, but as a lager brewer I am very accustomed to waiting.

Apply 6 PSI to the BEVERAGE tube to allow the carbon dioxide to bubble through the COLD (>45 deg. F.) beer. Attach a hose and fitting to the gas side of the canister and pich it off so that is SLOWLY releases the gas. This proceedure takes about 60 minutes. Check to see if the appropriate level is reached. If not continue. This technique is greatly improved if a sintered stainless steel carbonation stone is utilized. This technique is how most brewpubs/maicros carbonate their beer in the serving/grundy tanks quickly

im looking for the proper way to carbonate in a 5 gal keg. Can I just rely on force carbonation and dont have to do any priming? does this use a lot of CO2?

If you dont have to add sugar, the force carbonation seems the easiest (unless ill be changing my 5 lb CO2 tank a lot).

Also, on a side note, I have a 1/2 barrel of beer attached to my Co2 tank already. should i expect any problems just putting a splitter in the air line and using the same pressure for both the 5 gal home brew and the 1/2 keg purchased brew?